Page 31 of Hunter

“I don’t,” she tells me, not looking at me. Her eyes focused on Kasia. “Would you be so kind as to iron my outfit for today, Kasia? It’s laid out on my bed.”

“Of course, Miss.”

Kasia excuses herself then scurries out of the kitchen, leaving the mess she’s created behind her. Isabella and I watch her disappear down the hallway toward the stairs to her mistress’s room. She resembles a rabbit just released from a trap, escaping to unexpected freedom.

“Bella.”

“Don’t, Hunter,” she snarls, lifting a hand, palm flat toward me. “I will not be spoken to as I was earlier. You don’t have any rights to tell me when or where to be. I am here as a favor to you, don’t forget that.” She purses her lips but looks past me over my shoulder. I try to meet her gaze, but she continually looks away as if uncomfortable.

“I am sorry, Bella. If I offended, it wasn’t meant.” I want to point out that her being here is as much of a benefit to her future as it is mine. She needs me to sign her divorce agreement, even though I have no intention of doing so. But, at this point, she doesn't need to know that.

“Bullshit!” This time, her focus hits me hard, her neck cranes backward as she looks up. “You were trying to lay claim to me in front of your men, and that won’t be fucking happening. I will not be treated as a possession.”

I breathe deeply, enjoying her close proximity; the sheer passion for freedom that emanates from her is addictive. All I want to do is keep her close, keep her talking to me.

“But will you allow me to claim you privately, Bella?” She tenses as her mind processes what I’ve just said. A look of disbelief flits over her face. She knows what I want, and I will keep telling her. “I don’t need a public display to quench my thirst, but I need you. You are the sole reason for my existence.”

Her hands ball into fists by her sides. I’m unsure if she wants to kiss me or hit me. At this point, I would take either outcome from this conversation. Twenty years of hurt, anger, and loss bubble between us as we try to navigate our current relationship, something we both thought had ended long ago.

“You will never claim me in any situation, public or private.” I reach for her hand, but she pulls it away angrily. “I’m not yours,” she half-screams, and it only makes me more determined to make her mine. To show her that she has always been mine no matter where we were. She and I were meant to be together.

“Are you not?” I continue, loving the heightened tension in the room. Her cheeks have colored as her fury rises, and her dark eyes dilate. “Neither of us can deny how we felt the other night at the restaurant—the memories, the hope, the belief we shared.”

“You’re insane,” she snaps, throwing a hand in the air and turning away. I step up behind her, placing my hands on her hips. Our disagreement has gone too far. To give us any chance of reconciliation and making the next eleven months bearable, we need to be at least civil before I can get what I want from her. I expect her to walk away but she doesn’t, so I drop my lips to her cheek. They connect with warm flesh, and my cock stirs in my boxers, impatient at being made to wait again.

“Bella, I'm insane about you,” I whisper. “I always have been.”

“You don’t know me.”

We stand in the center of my kitchen, her turned away, and me holding on to what I can. This, what we have, may be messy and complicated, our time together divided by years apart, but it’s real and true. I can feel it. This is our moment to try; we need to take it. She must realize that.

“I do know you, Bella. Let me show you just how much.”

Chapter fifteen

Hunter’s Residence, London

Isabella

“Come with me,” Hunter says. He stands behind me, his hands on my hips as the morning sunshine seeps into the room. “I have something to show you.”

“Whatever it is, I don’t need to see it.”

He releases my waist, then walks around to face me. I keep my eyes fixed straight ahead, not wanting his actions to change my own. His hand takes my fingers, and he tugs me forward. I try to stay still, my weight centered so as not to move. I can’t let him control me.

“Bella,” he whispers, his voice soft. “Look at me.”

I keep staring at his chest, my eyes focused on the buttons of his shirt. My mind wanders to the body beneath, and my mouth dries. After closing my eyes, I wish for him to disappear, not to put me in this situation. Deep down, I don’t feel strong enough to reject him. The closer he comes, the harder it is to stick to my plan of doing what I need to do for the next year, but no more.

“Bella,” he repeats. “I know you feel this too.” His grip tightens on my fingers; I sense his body turn away, and he steps forward. My arm extends as he encourages me to walk with him. I pull at his fingers, but he doesn’t release me. He tugs again. “Please come with me. I promise what I have to show you is good news.”

When I reopen my eyes, his body is angled away as if to start walking, but his focus is firmly on me. The overconfident asshole who threatened to lodge a tracker in my body is gone, and back is the sweet boy I loved all these years. He looks nervous, unsure if I will do as he asks. There is no authority, no possession; he is asking me to join him. To trust him. My indecision splits in two as part of me wants to run, but the other is curious to see what he wants to show me.

“Okay,” I mutter, and he leads me toward the staircase. The house is deathly quiet. Not a soul can be heard. My watch tells me it’s seven in the morning. The daytime staff won’t have arrived yet. Then I wonder why on earth Kasia was cleaning the kitchen at this time in the morning. I had risen early, hoping to make some new content undisturbed, but my plan failed. And now, I’m holding my estranged husband’s hand as he leads me to see goodness knows what.

We climb the stairs to the bedrooms above, but instead of turning left as I expect, we turn right. Hunter takes me to the door at the furthest end of the corridor, which I assumed was a security office or something. I have seen men come and go from there the past few days but never thought much of it.

“Before we go in,” he says. “You need to understand, Bella, there is little about you I don’t know. And I hope you see this for what it is.”

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